Sharon Schmickle of MinnPost has a great profile of a unique Internet service provider in Lamberton, Minnesota. Lamberton is in southwest Minnesota with a population of 824. They are one of those communities that was in danger being left behind by broadband – but they got inventive. They turned to the high school…

“We were being left behind,” said [Leonard] Runck, who launched the project in the 1990s. “We couldn’t even get dial-up locally. … It’s getting tougher to run the network now because everyone wants more speed. But with a bunch of high-school kids, we are keeping it running.”

The high school maintains local Internet access with servers at the high school, wireless access points on grain elevators and silos and students to provide tech support. The provide service to 500 businesses and homes in the area.

It’s a great way to provide service to an area that isn’t going to be served and a fantastic service-learning opportunity for the students. Can you imagine the experience they are getting? One students talks about it…

Andrew Engen, 18, says a lot of the troubleshooting and maintenance he does on the network requires as much common sense as it does technical skill. For kids who have worked on farms, “fixing stuff” is second nature — especially now, when tractors come with GPS devices and farmers count on Palm Pilots to map tile lines in their fields.

Still, Andrew said his network experience “will definitely help” move him toward his goal of getting a degree in computer science or telecommunications from the University of Minnesota.